Changing Lanes is an American thriller drama film that was released in 2002. It was directed by the late Roger Michell and featured Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson as the two main leads. The film follows a Wall Street lawyer (Affleck) who accidentally ends up in a collision with a recovering alcoholic insurance salesman (Jackson). After the lawyer leaves the scene of the accident, the two men try to get back at each other, engaging in a variety of immoral and illegal actions that end up having a major impact on each man's life. The film was released on April 12, 2002 by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews and was a box office success.
Premise[]
The film follows a young Wall Street lawyer Gavin Banek who one morning accidentally crashes his car into a vehicle driven by a middle-aged, recovering alcoholic insurance salesman named Doyle Gipson. After Gavin leaves the scene of the accident, they both try to get back at each other, engaging in a variety of immoral and illegal actions that end up having a huge impact on each of their lives.
In the final cut of the film, after all the various constant attacks and threats towards each other. Gavin and Doyle eventually resolve their problems with the latter finally returning the power of appointment. After making his amends with Doyle, Gavin then blackmails his boss after learning that the file was obtained illegally. He then comes clean to Doyle's wife and she then with their kids, reunites with Doyle.
Alternate Ending[]
At one point an early review of the film was published, it contained spoilers including the supposed ending of the film.
The film was originally going to end much differently, with Doyle and Gavin instead having an all out brawl in Gavin's law firm. Which leads to outside on the balcony, where they eventually have a discussion ending with Gavin taking the power of appointment and tearing it up. It then most likely would've lead to the end credits. It is assumed that it was changed and deleted due to negative feedback from the test audience.[1] It was thought to have been made available on the DVD release. However it only included three unrelated deleted scenes, and the original ending was not even mentioned by director Roger Michell on the commentary track.[2]
It is unknown why this original ending has not seen the light of day even all these years later with the Blu-Ray release, which just ported over the DVD extras. All that is available of the ending is brief moments that can be seen in some of the TV Spots for the film. The bit features Gavin getting aggressive at Doyle then proceeding to push Doyle on to the balcony.[3] Both of which match the reported description of the original ending. It is most unlikely that it will ever see the light of day considering the death of director Roger Michell, and also because the film is hardly talked about by most and considered to be forgotten.
In 2024, Kino Lorber released Changing Lanes on 4K UHD. This new edition included an all new remaster, however all the extras were once again just ported over from the previous home media releases.[4]